Synchronized Roller Furl System for Hoisting, Reefing and Storing of Sails

ABSTRACT

The invention describes a combined manually and motorized driven roller-furl sail system that enables synchronized hoisting, reefing and stowing of sails, including automatic tightening and fixing sails at a secure position by turning a halyard sheave manually or setting a motor switch for Push-Button operation. Except for the halyard sheave and manual override, the compact unit is placed inside its mandrel and can be adapted to existing furl systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Since fairly long time sailboats are partly outfitted with mechanical furler systems that help hoisting, reefing and stowing sails on board. The general advancements of these systems are that the sail area while partly furled can be adjusted according to the wind pressure and that the sails are easily stowed when furled around a mandrel. Whereas jibs are furled around a rigid or flexible forestay, mainsails are rolled around a tube as a mandrel that is held by bearings either inside or outside vertically along a mast or horizontally inside a boom shell. There are also systems without a boom shell, then the mandrel is the boom.

Roller reefing systems are most critical components for the safety of a sailboat at sea. The sails are the main power system that determine speed, course and heel of a boat and—without an auxiliary engine—they are the only power source to drive the boat. For safe sailing a reef system must ensure that sails can be hoisted, reefed and stowed under any condition.

Although the further described invention can be adapted for every kind of roller reefing system, the following text and drawings will cover only an application for a boom furl system.

Up to date roller reef systems enable hoisting of a sail by pulling its halyard either manually or with help of a motorized winch while the sail unfurls freely from the turning boom (mandrel). The boom can be stopped and fixed at any position and the sail will then be close hauled by tightening the halyard and belaying it. For reefing or stowing of the sail the boom will be turned counterclockwise to furl the sail in. Commonly the boom is turned by a handle with a shaft through the mast or by a reef drum fixed at either end of the boom while the reef line is led from the drum over sheaves to the cockpit where it is pulled to turn the mandrel and furl the sail in. Heaving the sail will feed the reef line around the drum again. To accommodate long reef lines, relative big drums are needed. So, placing the drum between mast and sail requires an unfavorable wide luff-track to connect the sail to the mast, whereas placing it at the aft of the boom would need more power to furl it from the cockpit, due to more line turns. Therefore, sometimes an endless looped reef line turning a sheave connected to the boom is used; but a loose endless line will produce only enough grip to turn small sails onto the boom. Turning of the boom is sometimes also accomplished by an electric or hydraulic drive that replaces the reef drum at the aft of the boom. However, these can only support to reef or stow the sail and the halyard needs to be fed by hand to prevent the sail from sliding down and being blown-out by a wind gust. While feeding, the sailor also has to apply a proper amount of tension to the halyard to ensure clean layers of sail around the mandrel. For hoisting the sail, the halyard needs to be pulled manually or with help of a winch and the mandrel has to be controlled to prevent a blow-out of the sail in a gust. The halyard then has to be detached and belayed manually for a secure fixed sail position. Thus, to set or haul sails, the reef line has to be operated separately from the halyard rope at the same time, making it difficult for a sole person to handle.

To ease setting and reefing one would like to handle only one line, preferable the halyard, that would be connected to the reef line drum, allowing it to give the same length of way as the sail is heaved. This is what the invention is about.

The new furl system utilizes either a manually operated system with a worm drive mounted between gooseneck and boom or a combined system with either an electric or hydraulic motor coupled to the manually operated system. Except that the electric or hydraulic drive unit replaces a frictional bearing element FIG. 2, functionality and all remaining parts are the same. The combined unit comprises an in-boom motorized driven sail furl system that can be manually operated as well.

The manual system uses a winch handle that inserts into the worm screw shaft 30 to drive the halyard sheave and the coupled synchronizing mechanism, whereas the motorized version is driven by an electric or hydraulic drive with attached gear that are mounted inside the mandrel. Both systems drive a halyard sheave that is coupled and synchronized to the boom. To establish sufficient grip on the sheave a tensioned endless halyard loop is utilized. Connecting both line ends at the sails head and running via another sheave at the masthead back to the driven sheave between boom and mast. Due to design space limitations the synchronizing mechanism is also placed inside the front section of the boom. To save further critical space between mast and and boom, the worm wheel of the gear is worked out with a contoured passageway for the halyard, thus combining both.

Turning the halyard sheave in one direction will heave the sail, unfurling it from its boom. Reversing the direction will drive the boom and furl the sail onto it. Because the sails head is connected to the looped halyard, the rotational speed of the halyard sheave with its smaller given radius and the rotational speed of the boom with its wider and changing radius of furled layers of sail on it have to be synchronized. Although sails are preferably set with the ships bow toward the wind, the mechanism nonetheless prevents a sudden blow out of the sail in a wind gust while heaving the sail. And because furling systems are prone to jamming if the layers of the sail are not tensioned, it is important that the synchronizing mechanism tightens the sail being furled onto the boom. The synchronizing mechanism also locks the halyard sheave to the boom when hoisting is stopped automatically. The new system enables one-action or push-button operation, thus leaving the sail in a secure position without belaying it manually.

Because the manual driven system differs from the electric or hydraulic motorized version principally only by replacing the motor drive unit by a shaft that holds the lead screw in a frictional bearing and because the motorized system can be operated manually also as it is, the ongoing text and all drawings will mainly refer to an electrical driven system with an attached planetary gear that is mounted inside a boom as mandrel.

-   -   U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,988 from Feb. 27, 1996 refers to a worm gear         drive attached to a stay or mast with an at least partly inside         the worm screw mounted hydraulic drive.     -   U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,511 shows a similar arrangement with a crank         inserted inside the worm screw.     -   Whereas GB A 2,226,800 shows a sail driving arrangement with an         electric drive partially accommodated in a worm screw, more         specifically in the gear casing.     -   But none of these arrangements are able to synchronize the more         complex task of setting and reefing sails. Until now there are         no synchronized roller reef systems for medium and middle seized         sailing boats available. To the knowledge of the applicant, only         few, complex systems for super yachts are able to operate         synchronized hoisting, reefing and stowing sails by use of         distinctive captive drives mounted under or above the deck.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a new sail furl mechanism where the mandrel on which the sail is furled and a halyard sheave are driven and interconnected by a mechanism that enables synchronized hoisting, reefing and stowing of sails, including automatic tightening and fixing sails at a secure position The drive can be an electric or hydraulic motor that is placed inside the mandrel or combined with a manually operated system with a crank that engages to a worm gear with integrated halyard sheave outside but near one end of the mandrel. The manual drive can overrun the installed motor drive. Principal the new furl mechanism can be used for every sail that can be furled around a mandrel being either a tube ore a wire that is connected to a mast or on deck and can be also adapted to existing furl systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a general basic layout of a rig with a sail partly furled around a boom as a mandrel.

FIG. 2 depicts a partly sectional view of the frictional bearing with the lead screw shaft.

FIG. 3 shows a section view of the described invention with combined worm gear, drive unit and synchronizing mechanism with part section of a boom.

FIG. 4 shows an exploded isometric view of the lead screw shaft, spline hub, combined lead-nut-spline, serrated inner-mandrel-flange and cut out wheel with spring and nut.

FIG. 5A shows a enlarged partial sectional view of FIG. 3 with retracted lead-nut-spline and disengaged slide clutch but engaged serration for heaving the sail.

FIG. 5B shows a enlarged partial sectional view of FIG. 3 with forward moved lead-nut-spline and engaged slide clutch but disengaged serration for reefing the sail.

FIG. 6 shows an isometric view of the worm gear with a section of the combined worm wheel/halyard sheave with line and the case for the second sheave. For a better view the front side part of the gear housing is omitted.

FIG. 7 shows an isometric view of the combined worm wheel, worked out as halyard sheave with radial bores.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following description relates to a new sail furl mechanism where the mandrel 3 on which the sail is furled and the halyard 7 that pulls the sail up are interconnected by a synchronizing mechanism. The drive 10 can be an electric or hydraulic motor that is placed inside the mandrel or an external crank that engages to a worm screw shaft 30 outside near the front end of the mandrel. Principal the new furl mechanism can be used for every sail that can be furled around a mandrel, either a tube or a wire that is connected to a fix point at mast or on deck. The following description however relates to a sail furl system where the sail furls around a boom that at one end is connected to a worm gear case 13/14 that itself is mounted to a non rotatable shaft 17 to a joint at the boat and is held at the other end by a topping lift 5 and a vang line 6. The joint for example can be a gooseneck and in the ongoing description I will assume so. For systems where the mandrel is mounted within a hollow boom shell with a slot on the upper surface that permits to enter the sail, it is common to distinguish between mandrel and boom shell, then called boom. Because the ongoing description relates to a system where the mandrel is mounted without support of a boom shell, mandrel and boom will mean the same.

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic layout of a boom 3 connected to the mast 1. At the aft end 4 the boom incorporates a bearing with a housing (not shown) that is held by the topping lift 5 and the vang 6. With raised or partly reefed sail 6, the topping lift is slack and the boom is held by the sail and pulled down by the boom vang line. Because the main sheet (not shown) has also to be connected to the bearing case and the small angle between boom and vang line is unfavorable to hold the boom down. This simple layout may not be an optimal solution, but it is chosen here to simplify the drawings and descriptions.

FIG. 3 shows that the forward side of the boom 15 is bored around a hollow shaft 16 that itself is bored around a non rotatable shaft 17 shown here with a pin hole to be mounted to the gooseneck bracket. The case 14 of a worm gear drive with an integrated halyard sheave is fix mounted to the non rotatable shaft. An optional electric or hydraulic drive unit 10 with or without a gear 11 with a lead screw 12 a as output, is mounted inside the hollow section of the non rotatable shaft. In a manual only version the lead screw shaft 12 b will be bored in a frictional bearing FIG. 2. An endless looped halyard 7 is leads from the halyard sheave 13 at the front of the boom to a mast top sheave 8 and from there back to the halyard sheave 13 again. The sail head 9 is attached to the looped halyard where the two ends of the loop are connected and the sail foot is fixed to the boom.

To understand the synchronizing function it is best to describe the motorized force flow first and explain the manually induced function later. Shaft 12 is worked out as or mounted to a lead screw with high pitch and several starts, allowing to transmit high torque but less longitudinal forces. In a motorized version it drives a combined element 18 with an outer spline 19, further called lead-nut-spline. The combined lead-nut-spline distributes torque power between the halyard sheave and the boom. Consisting of three sections, its inner left sided section is worked out as a lead screw nut that is engaged to the drive's lead screw output shaft 12 a. The outer profile of this first section is worked out as a spline profile 19, permitting it for longitudinal axial movement within and transmitting torque to a spline hub 21 mounted to a hollow shaft 16 that is fixed to the halyard sheave 13 inside the worm gear housing. The middle section of the combined lead-nut-spline is worked out as, or mounted to a flange with a clutch lining 22 attached to its backside. A cylindrical part worked out as bearing shaft 23 at the aft side of the flange allows the lead-nut-spline to be turned and moved axially along this section. In its continuation the shaft is flattened to key fit to a disk 24 with radial sectional cut out openings. The disc will be turned by the shaft and can be moved along the flattened section of it. At the end the flattened shaft is further worked out as a screw shaft to hold a spring 25 by a nut 26 against the radial cut out disc.

A cylindrical element of low friction material, further called inner-mandrel-flange 27, is radially mounted inside to the boom 15. It keeps the lead-nut-spline 18 with clutch lining 22 to its front side and the sectional cut out disc 24 to its back side. Its inner bore allows the plain cylindrical part of the lead-nut-spline to turn and move axially. The flat front side of the inner-mandrel-flange is worked out to fit to the clutch lining and its surface permits to act with it. The back side of the inner-mandrel-flange is formed out with serrations 28 that match and fit into the sectional openings of the disc 24. The spring 25, held by the nut 26 keeps the sectional cut out disk flexible along the flattened section of the shaft. It allows the disc to moved axially and to rotate in right hand direction (seen from lead screw shaft) and to glide above the serrations. A contrary rotation will engage the serrations into the openings of the disc and block the disk from turning against the inner-mandrel-flange 27 and the boom connected to it.

FIG. 5A shows the function for heaving the sail assuming a right handed lead unit is used. Applying power and turning the lead screw output shaft 12 a to the right will retract the lead-nut-spline first. Because for this axial movement it needs to overcome only some frictional force that will be less than the force to turn the spline hub 21 with hollow shaft 16 and halyard sheave 13. The drive will start rotating the lead-nut-spline FIG. 5A only after its inner bore ground 29 has reaches the output shaft. The openings of the sectional cut out disc 24 that had been lifted above the serrations before, are now engaged and flexible held on to the serrations 28 of the inner-mandrel-flange 27. In a right hand rotation the disc will move up and glide over the serrations, acting as an overrun clutch. That is necessary because the halyard sheave 13 with its smaller diameter has to rotate faster to move the same length of halyard as sail is pulled by it from the boom with its wider mandrel diameter and layers of sail. The spline section of the lead-nut-spline 19 now turns the outer spline hub 21 that is connected to a hollow shaft 16 that leads forward into the worm gear housing 14 where it is mounted to the halyard sheave 13. The looped halyard 7 on its sheave will heave the sail 6, drawing it from the free turning mandrel or boom.

Acting as an overrun the sectional cut out disc 24 and the inner-mandrel-flange 27 are not able to rotate against each other now. So a sudden wind blow on the sail will not cause the boom to turn faster and unfurl excessive sail. However constant wind pressure on the sail while heaving would turn the boom at the same speed as the halyard sheave. Because of its wider diameter it would then unfurl more sail length than halyard line is pulled, bulging the sail. To hinder the boom to turn with same speed as the halyard sheave under constant wind pressure, the bearing at the aft of the boom (not shown) held by the topping lift 5 and vang line 6 must be frictional or a preferably adjustable and unidirectional brake has to be employed here.

If no manual or machine power is applied, back rotation of the boom induced by sail weight on the halyard or wind pressure on the sail will be blocked, because the sectional cut out disk is still engaged onto the serrations of the inner-mandrel-flange, hindering any rotation of the boom against the halyard sheave.

When the drive turns left, it will move the lead-nut-spline 18 backwards until its clutch lined flange presses on the front of the inner-mandrel-flange as shown in FIG. 5B. The pitch of the lead screw together with the layout and surface of the linings contact area must be properly adjusted to apply sufficient friction for turning the boom. Because the boom can only furl as much sail as line is given by the halyard sheave 13 that is connected to the lead-nut-spline, the clutch has to act as a slide clutch. It overruns the inner-mandrel-flange 27 and the amount of frictional force to do so will apply favorable tension to the sail being furled. The overrun is enabled because the backward moving lead-nut-spline 18 has lifted the sectional cut out disk 24 above the serrations of the inner-mandrel-flange, allowing it to rotate against it.

While furling the sail onto the boom, a sudden wind blow on the sail might stop or even momentarily force the boom to a contrary rotation, but furling on, the system will soon compensate for it. To lock the system and secure the sail position a short reverse turn of the drive is necessary to disengage the slide clutch and engage the sectional cut out openings again into the serrations of the inner-mandrel-flange.

The synchronized furl mechanism will function likewise, when the halyard sheave is turned manually by a crank (not shown), engaged to the worm screw shaft 30. Turning the halyard sheave 13 and the hollow shaft with mounted spline hub by the worm screw will move the lead-nut-spline also back or forward, enabling the same functions as when it is driven by a motor. The drive 10 with gear 11 needs to rotate free but with some frictional resistance to put enough counterforce to the lead screw to move axial. Whereas an electric drive can be turned manually, a hydraulic drive has to be equipped with a bypass valve that when opened allows its hydraulic liquid to circulate.

Replacing the electric or hydraulic drive for a frictional bearing or slide clutch that holds the lead screw would provide a manual only operating system. FIG. 2 depicts a frictional bearing in a housing 43/44 that preferably has the same dimensions as a drive flange would have. The lead screw shaft is mounted to a flange 12 a inside of the housing. To the front and backside of the lead screw flange are clutch linings 47 attached. The friction force is then adjusted for example by mounting different kinds or number of disc springs 45 to the amount that is needed to move the lead-nut-spline. The disk springs can also used to adjust the pressure of the lead nut spline to the inner-mandrel-flange.

An aerodynamic critical section of any sailboat is the wind flow between mast and sail. Usually the sail should be in a track as near a possible to the mast. System inherent, boom furl systems with reefing drums, heavy boom shells, locking mechanism and the mechanics for manual operation are requiring more space to be accommodated than common reefing systems where the sails are just folded down onto the boom. Moreover, common slides and luff wires can hardly be used because they would build up too high being furled, needing excessive space. The necessity for a boom to have a free radius to the mast and that the goosenecks pin axis has to be vertically aligned to the sail luff are further limiting design space. Most systems therefore use a rigid or flexible second luff track that prolongs the original sails luff and allows for more distance between mast and sail luff.

Other objections that are solved by the new furl system are:

Implementing a synchronized manual mechanism in addition to a powered system needs even more room, making it difficult to upgrade it for existing systems. So, the new boom furl must not use more design space than a common roller reef drum.

And to keep the distance between mast and sail luff as short as possible the worm drive wheel is worked out to accommodate the halyard, thus combining halyard sheave with the wheel drive.

Even modern high-tech ropes do stretch. Therefore a mechanism that operates a long endless halyard that functions only properly under high line tension, must be able to compensate for elongation.

To compensate for elongation the gear housing of the new system incorporates a second sheave 32 that can be moved and set by a screw drive 33. Deviating the line 34 with the second sheave enables line length compensation.

Feeding a halyard around a sheave would put only a half turn of rope around it and would certainly not enable enough grip to heave a sail. As the grip of a line around a sheave depends on line pressure, surface friction and contact length around the sheave, these parameters have to be optimized.

Moving the second sheave 32 towards the driven halyard sheave 13 pulls more rope around it and will apply more tension to the halyard. To add further grip, the combined worm wheel/halyard sheave FIG. 7 is worked out with a V-profile 35 between the (remaining) teeth with radial bores 36 at the profile base. The resulting contours at the base and sides are adding considerable edging length. They are of a favorable geometry also and can be efficiently machined into the wheel.

The manual worm gear mechanism is an easy to use back-up system to override electric, hydraulic or mechanical failures. However if the system is mechanically blocked as could be caused by a broken spur gear or axis, the manual back-up system using the same synchronization will not work either.

To bypass a blocking mechanic and to set or reef a sail in spite of it, the second sheave 32 is retracted until the halyard is loosened and slips freely around its main sheave 13. Now the halyard with sail can be pulled manually to its desired position. Tightening the second wheel will squeeze the out coming and in coming part of the halyard together against the housing, blocking any further movement and keeping the sail in its position. If the tension doesn't allow to turn the sheave that much way inside, a small block of material 37 can be placed between the lines, before screwing the sheave in.

Known Disadvantages of the New Boom Furl System:

Handling the system by the manual driven worm drive in case of an electric or hydraulic failure will need to turn the drive with its gear also manually. This might add considerable resistance to overcome if the gear ratio of the motor drive is high. However this applies only for a motor driven system where the manual drive is a backup device. A manual only driven system would have an adjusted frictional bearing that would need less force to overcome. And having only one turn at masthead a looped halyard would not induce too much friction either.

Because one would like to leave the worm screw permanently mounted inside the gear housing, it is always driven while the system is operated. To avoid unnecessary power loss the gear should therefore be of a low ratio. Although a special crank with an attached worm screw might be usable, it would be more practical to use a common winch handle as a crank for engaging into and turning the worm screw. 

1. A furling device for a sail of a sailboat having at least one drive and a mechanic that synchronizes different rotational movements of a halyard sheave and a mandrel, coupled by a looped halyard, the furling device comprising: (a) a non rotatable shaft that at one end is worked out to hold to a non rotatable joint and that is axially contoured and extends into a sleeve like tube to provide housing for a drive or a frictional bearing; (b) a frictional bearing worked out of 2 cylindric elements one with a centric bore, that fit together, forming an inner space to accommodate disc springs and a flange of a lead screw shaft, the device mountable into the hollow housing section of the non rotatable shaft; (c) a flange fitting into the housing of the frictional bearing, being part of it, with attached clutch linings at front and backside, mounted to a lead screw with plain shaft parts; (d) a synchronizing element, named lead-nut-spline consisting of a front section with inner bore worked out as lead nut profile and its outer surface as a spline profile, a middle section with a flange with an attached clutch lining on its back side and an outer section with a cylindric formed shaft that continues into a flattened shaft with a screw profile at its end; (e) a disc that has radial sectional openings and a centric hole that encloses the flattened shaft of the said lead-nut-spline and is able to move axially along the shafts flattened section; (f) a spline hub of low frictional material, with a bore partly worked out as a spline profile with a smaller forward portion of the bore that is worked out as bearing against the said non rotatable shaft and with an outside end worked out as outer bearing against the inner-mandrel-flange; (g) a hollow shaft with a flange on its forward side to mount the combined worm wheel/halyrd sheave and that is backwards mounted around the said spline hub; (h) a worm drive with facility to engage a winch handle into its worm screw shaft with a housing consisting of a front and a back part, mounted between mast and mandrel on and enclosing the said non rotatable shaft and its worm wheel bored by the non rotatable shaft; (i) a worm wheel where the middle section of its teeth are cut and contoured for a V-shaped line passageway with radial bores at the base, to form a combined worm wheel/halyard sheave and that is bored onto the non rotatable shaft and centrical mounted to the flange of the said hollow shaft; (j) a cylindric element of low friction material, named inner-mandrel-flange, mounted inside the mandrel, with bores of two different diameters with the wider one at front bearing the outer surface of the said spline hub and the smaller one bearing on the plain cylindrical part of the said lead-nut-spline, the element with its front area suitable to match the said flange with clutch lining and a backside that is formed by serrations that fit into the radial sectional openings of the said disc; (k) a mandrel where the foot or tacks of the sail are fixed onto and with an inner diameter wider than the said hollow shaft and an attached plain bearing at its inner front side; and (l) a sheave inside the worm gear housing, partly encased in a housing with a nut bore above the sheaves diameter for a screw with a flange enclosed by the two housing parts of the worm gear and by that the sheave can be moved horizontally to deviate or jam the halyard.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the said frictional bearing (b) is replaced by an electric or hydraulic drive with gear and has a lead screw formed output shaft to fit into the lead-nut-spline.
 3. The device of claim 2, where the said non rotatable shaft incorporates a funnel to provide hydraulic liquid for an hydraulic drive or space for an electric cable for a electric motor. 